On the custom of spring festival.

In recent years, the criticism of lucky money is endless. The reasons are nothing more than the following: first, the number of lucky money keeps rising, which increases people's economic burden; Secondly, children often can't use the lucky money on the right path. Third, lucky money sometimes becomes a disguised gift and bribe. These criticisms are correct, but it may not be the right choice to advocate changing customs and abolishing lucky money.

Lucky money is a folk custom, which can be accumulated in the long river of years. According to the analysis of sociologists and anthropologists, a custom must exist because it undertakes certain social functions.

What social function does the lucky money bear? In the traditional society with blood ties and family life as the basic model, the emphasis is on "the order of the young and the old", and parents are usually dignified. Only during the Spring Festival, in a festive atmosphere, elders kowtow to their elders to show their respect and blessings, and elders give them more or less lucky money to show their concern and love. The giving and taking of lucky money, like a lively drama, not only expresses the meaning of celebrating the festive season, but also embodies the traditional ethics of "filial piety" and "respect for relatives", which is a confirmation of family blood relationship and an emphasis on traditional ethics.

The folklore of lucky money has been passed down from generation to generation. Whether it is a big family or a common people, every household carries this folk custom, and the young and the old have fun together. What makes this folk custom die out now? Every nation has the problem of how to treat traditional folk customs. The history of the United States is only a few hundred years, so they cherish their own historical traditions like their eyes, such as their most important holiday-Thanksgiving Day. Japanese people celebrate all kinds of traditional festivals a year, and most children in Japan should have a grand adult ceremony. Most of these festivals and customs have been handed down from China, but they no longer exist in their birthplace.

Most of the traditional folk customs are good, and we should cherish them, because they represent the long history of our nation, and once lost, it is difficult to restore them. In big cities like Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, most citizens are immigrants, so the old local customs have almost disappeared. In Beijing, celebrating the Spring Festival is no different from usual. Few people remember Laba Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Double Ninth Festival. It can be said that modern people live in a state where material life is extremely rich and spiritual life is relatively poor. Few traditions and public customs make us feel connected with history and national culture. Behind the loss of traditional customs and etiquette is the loss of traditional human ethics. More and more people have realized that in our society, the feelings between people are becoming more and more indifferent and the social ties are gradually relaxing. Think about it. Why are Korean dramas all the rage in China? Isn't it because of the deep human touch that we are moved? The prestige and kowtow of parents in Korean dramas are not good, but the excellent ethical order in our society, such as fatherly love and filial piety, brotherhood and respect, can never be abandoned.

Admittedly, in the process of modernization, we sometimes have to bid farewell to some customs, such as setting off fireworks in big cities, because this kind of folk custom is really dangerous in crowded cities. However, lucky money is different from firecrackers, and lucky money itself is harmless. Some people use lucky money to show their deep pockets, some parents don't guide their children to use it, and adults' money worship psychology makes their children borrow it to keep up with the joneses. This is because some people mistakenly use this traditional custom and violate the original meaning of this custom.

There are all kinds of dinners in the tradition of China people, but the most important one is the New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve stands for supremacy. On the 30th of this year, the wise ancestors in ancient times will pardon the prisoners and go home for a New Year's Eve dinner, because this meal represents a person's supreme right to truly live in the world, which is irreplaceable by China people. A few years ago, director Bird filmed "Going Home for the New Year", which tells a story of human tolerance through female prisoners going home for New Year's Eve dinner. Finally, the film won back a "Humanitarian Spirit Award" for Bird. The New Year's Eve dinner has already gone beyond the category of "eating", and the things on the table are not necessarily eaten in the New Year. The meaning of New Year's Eve is not the food, but the warmth between people.

New Year's Eve is a symbol of happiness, which is worse than Yang Bailao. However, on 30th this year, Yang Bailao also wanted to buy a red rope for Xi and try to arrange a New Year's Eve dinner. Xi 'er's lyrics of "Dad brought back white flour and spent the New Year happily" let my parents know what "the foreshadowing of tragedy" means in the process of recalling the painful experience.

New Year's Eve means fundamental power, and overseas Chinese should feel it the most. Indonesian people were once forbidden to celebrate the Spring Festival in China. After former Indonesian President Wahid came to power, the ban on China people holding religious beliefs and folk activities in public was lifted. More than 30 years later, Chinese Indonesians were allowed to spend the Spring Festival without restriction, which re-embodied the joyful atmosphere of the Spring Festival and made this New Year's Eve dinner relaxed and comfortable.

New Year's Eve is the core centripetal force of China people, and the warmth of New Year's Eve is exactly such a kind of warmth engraved in the bones of the nation, warm in the greetings of family members, and boiling in everyone's blood. This kind of warmth is the mother's nagging under the New Year's Eve lamp, and it is also the persistence and sincerity of countless wanderers who braved the cold wind and stepped on the snow to get home. China people are most concerned about their closest relatives and feelings, and are deeply influenced by the "state of etiquette". But in modern society, many family members go their separate ways for their livelihood and development, and it is rare to get together at ordinary times. How pleasant it is to have dinner together, have a family dinner, speak out of turn, tell parting stories and feel about life!

We attach importance to New Year's Eve, that is, we attach importance to tradition and recognize our identity. In Erya Shi Tian, there is a saying: "Young people are called cooked rice, so they are named after old people", and "Nian" is regarded as a symbol of harvest, so everyone gets together to cook something delicious, and this celebration becomes a New Year's Eve dinner.

More importantly, this meal is a mere formality. When eating New Year's Eve, every family should have a dish, that is, whole fish, which means more than a year. In the south of our country, fish is the last course of the whole banquet. People don't really eat it, they just put it on the exhibition until next year, which means there is plenty of time. In some areas, the whole fish is served as the first hot dish until the end of the banquet, and everyone symbolically takes a few bites. The fish on New Year's Eve is entrusted with people's good wishes for a prosperous family business and a surplus every year. Guangzhou people usually have Italian dishes such as "get rich first" and "get rich first" on the New Year's Eve table, but this is just a matter of winning goodwill, and everyone still does it seriously and devoutly.

China is a big country with different customs. There are obvious differences between the north and the south: in the north, eating more bags of jiaozi on New Year's Eve is homophonic "making friends is young", and some put sugar in jiaozi to pray for a sweeter life in the coming year; Others wrap a coin in jiaozi, and whoever eats it will make a fortune in the new year. On New Year's Eve in the south, people usually eat Yuanxiao and rice cakes. Yuanxiao is also called "Tangyuan", "Tuanzi" and "Zi Yuan", with more sugar in the middle, which means a happy and sweet family reunion. The rice cake is made of glutinous rice, which is homophonic "high every year". But on this day, people all over China rushed to this feast. How can you not be moved?

One year I insisted on spending the Spring Festival alone in a foreign land. My father told me on the phone that he would leave me a pair of chopsticks at the dinner table. The next day, I boarded a crowded train.